Blacked-Out Weather Channel Spoofs DirecTV 'Cable Effects' Ads

DirecTV Rolls Out New Suite of Weather Features With WeatherNation

Weather Channel will introduce an attack video Tuesday as part of a carriage battle with DirecTV that's left the network dark on the satellite provider for nearly a month.

The commercial, which was developed in-house and produced by State Line Films, is a parody of DirecTV's ongoing "Get rid of cable" campaign and was designed to capture DirecTV subscribers' frustration over the blackout, said Scot Safon, exec VP and chief marketing officer, Weather Channel. Here's the Weather Channel spoof:

Advertising Age Player

Here's some of the inspiration:

Advertising Age Player

Advertising Age Player

The DirecTV video will appear on YouTube, across Weather Channel's digital properties and on its cable channel.

Weather Channel is also looking to air the spot on national TV, but thus far hasn't gained approval, according to a spokeswoman for the channel.

DirecTV and Weather Channel have reached a standstill in negotiations. DirecTV has argued that Weather Channel airs too many programs that don't fit with its stated mission of delivering the weather, such as reality shows like "Coast Guard Alaska."

Weather Channel said it had been seeking an increase of just a penny per subscriber in negotiations. The network costs pay-TV companies an average of 14 cents per subscriber, according to researcher SNL Kagan. That makes it 105th for cost out of 189 networks with license fees that SNL Kagan tracks.

The latest spot from Weather Channel comes as DirecTV announces new weather services for its subscribers in conjunction with WeatherNation, the satellite company's replacement for Weather Channel.

The new services include local weather information at any time, accessible by pressing a button on the DirecTV remote while watching WeatherNation, and "Severe Weather Mix" programming starting in March, which will show six different feeds on one channel during major weather events.